Research the internet for projects that have been a failure or success. Select 3 projects that have been completed successfully and 3 that have been considered failures according to the criteria discussed below. Briefly summarize each project development emphasizing the success factors and what could have been done differently for those who fail.
(Three pages minimum, double space, APA).
Defining Project Success and Failure
How do you define project success?
Project success is creating deliverables that include all of the agreed upon features (meet scope goals). The outputs should satisfy all specifications and please the project’s customers. The customers need to use the outputs effectively as they do their work (meet quality goals). The project should be completed on schedule and on budget (meet time and cost constraints).
Project success also includes other considerations. A successful project is one that is completed without heroics – that is, people should not burn themselves out to complete the project. Those people who work on the project should either learn new skills and/or refine existing skills. Organizational learning should take place and be captured for future projects. Finally, the parent organization should reap business level benefits such as development of new products, increased market share, increased profitability, decreased cost, etc.
Project success include the following: ESS
• Meeting Agreements
– Cost, schedule, and specifications met
• Customer’ Success
– Needs met, deliverables used, customer satisfied
• Performing Organization’s Success
– Market share, new products, new technology
• Project Team’s Success
– Loyalty, development, satisfaction
How do you define project failure?
Project failure is not meeting all of the success criteria listed above. Serious project failure is when some of the success criteria are missed by a large amount and/or when several of the success criteria are missed by even a small margin.
